It’s hard to contain one’s enthusiasm for DeMaria Design‘s Redondo Beach House. The home, constructed with a combination of prefabricated shipping containers and traditional buildings materials, is a stunning beachfront residence. It is the first in a line of homes that will be available from DeMaria Design’s “packaged architecture” affiliate, Logical Homes. DeMaria has said that he considers shipping containers the icons of the global age: “stacked containers create a powerful imagery on the landscape.” With that, we can certainly expect to see more recycled shipping container architecture to come from this Manhattan Beach-based design studio.

The house is made up of eight containers of varying sizes bound together by conventional building methods. The metal container walls define service spaces while wood and steel frame the living spaces, including an artist’s studio, master bedroom, and spacious living room with 20-foot ceilings. A smartly placed below grade container forms a swimming pool. Doors and windows are cut through the walls, but beyond that no effort is made to conceal the industrial aesthetic of the containers.

What, you may ask, is environmentally friendly about this home besides giving the ubiquitous shipping container a second life as part of a luxury home? The prefabricated nature of the containers allows 70% of construction to occur off site, greatly reducing construction waste. The resulting home is also extremely strong, mold-free, and fire- and termite-proof. This particular home also features prefabricated metal roof panels, multi-skinned acrylic sheets, formaldehyde-free plywood, natural ventilation instead of air conditioning, and efficient tank-less hot water heaters.

While it’s not exactly affordable right now, at $125 per square foot, the hope is that as “packaged architecture” catches on, Logical Homes will be able to make custom design available at production prices and really rock suburbia. For now, DeMaria Designs is working on a community center and a mixed-use multifamily project, both made entirely out of shipping containers.

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8 Comments

Steve OdehDecember 21, 2013 at 9:16 am

Its great that we are looking at alternative housing.With the exploding population in Africa and a serious housing crises in the third world, i believe container housing provides a long lasting solution.

johnsimmisAugust 22, 2010 at 7:11 pm

Building with containers is worth taking a look at if you are contemplating a new home.

Good resource is the Residential Shipping Container Primer website. A DO IT YOURSELF (DIY) REFERENCE AND FOR CONVERTING RECYCLED INTERMODAL CARGO SHIPPING CONTAINERS INTO BUILDINGS AND ARCHITECTURE.

Lots of example buildings, details, facts, and links to other articles. They have something new that you can setup your own project wiki to get help with your project if you are the design build sort…

CarsonJuly 7, 2010 at 8:49 am

It’s been a few years now, but this project is still brings a feeling of excitement and exhilaration. Timeless design is always fresh. What is happening at the moment with new container projects by DeMaria???

Hey we live in San Diego where the average house price is $325,000. We could certainly use the Redondo Beach Prefab – the more the better. Try and get that cost down!

SBcriticOctober 3, 2008 at 9:45 pm

I remember hearing, \”…you can\’t live in a cargo container, they\’re not strong enough, or they\’re too hot, or they\’re too old and too rusty, or no people into steel cargo boxes or…\” I must have read fifty blog posts on the net that bashed this house while it was under constrution. Then it gets finished, published, an AIA award and they\’re filming documentaries about it. Definitely paid it\’s dues! Redondo project broke the barrier for all the others who now follow. In time there will be many container projects, but this will always be the \”Model T\” that showed everyone how it could and should be done. Logical home site has been silent for quite some time. I caught a Demaria lecture at UCLA last year and he said Logical homes was in a product development mode, sort of like what automobile makers do. Hoping to see the new prefabs in the South Bay soon.